A top official at Toyota Motor Corp said on Monday that he sees 40,000 units a year as an appropriate level of initial production at the automaker’s Russian factory, which is due to begin operations in December.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
Japan’s top automaker is planning to initially produce 20,000 Camrys at the St. Petersburg plant, gradually ramping up to 50,000 units a year.
“Twenty thousand is a bit low,” Tokuichi Uranishi, the executive vice president of overseas operations, told Reuters ahead of the Frankfurt auto show. “I think we could easily build and sell 40,000 units.”
Uranishi said that increasing production beyond 50,000 units might be a challenge because that plant will produce just one model.
He added that he wanted to bring an ultra low cost car under development to Russia as soon as possible, adding that move would give a big boost to sales volumes in Russia.
Toyota is developing the very low cost car that it intends to sell in emerging markets like India and Russia.
